BurmaNet News, December 2, 2009

[Editor]

December 2, 2009 Issue #3851


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Renovation to begin on Suu Kyi’s house
Kaladan Press Network: Temporary Registration Card (TRC) for Arakanese

ON THE BORDER
Right Vision News (Bangladesh): Dhaka to push Yangon to end border row

REGIONAL
Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka): Lankans rescue twelve Myanmar fishermen
Irrawaddy: UN in Malaysia grants more Burmese refugee status

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: British MPs call for inquiry into junta’s crimes
Irrawaddy: News of Stiglitz visit arouses hopes but also doubts

OPINION / OTHER
Inner City Press (USA): Darfur post to Gambari confirmed, US's Kurt
Campbell and UK's Burma shave – Matthew Russell Lee
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Asean breaks bread with rebellious Myanmar


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Renovation to begin on Suu Kyi’s house – Htet Aung Kyaw

Renovations on the house-cum-prison of Burmese opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi could begin this week after being approved by government
authorities, Suu Kyi’s lawyer said.

Nyan Win said that authorities had granted permission for an architect and
construction workers to enter the Rangoon compound, where Suu Kyi has been
held under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.

Few outsiders can visit the house where the National League for Democracy
(NLD) leader lives with her two caretakers.

“We have submitted to authorities a list of workers and construction
materials to enter the house,” said NLD spokesperson Nyan Win.

“I think we will be able to start the renovation in this week. The main
renovation will be on the two balconies on the house – they will be walled
up and turned into rooms.”

The house, which officially belongs to Suu Kyi’s late mother, was earlier
this year the subject of a legal dispute over ownership between Suu Kyi
and her estranged cousin, Khin Maung Aye.

There had been speculation that the retired army officer would sell the
plot of land, on the shores of Rangoon’s Inya lake, to government cronies,
although nothing came of it.

The house came to international attention earlier this year after US
citizen John Yettaw successful crossed Inya lake, using homemade flippers,
and entered the compound.

Speaking in court following the incident, Yettaw’s lawyer quoted the
54-year-old as saying that soldiers guarding the compound had merely
thrown rocks at him as he swam across the lake.

Suu Kyi was then taken to court and charged with breaching conditions of
her house, with judges claiming that she had sheltered Yettaw. Her house
arrest was extended by 18 months.

“An iron grille will be installed in the main house,” said Nyan Win.
“There is a small wooden house in the compound that has nearly collapsed
and is covered in bushes. It will be demolished.”

He added that two other wooden houses, one by the compound entrance, “will
be spared.”

____________________________________

December 2, Kaladan Press Network
Temporary Registration Card (TRC) for Arakanese – Tin Soe

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Burmese military junta is issuing Temporary
Registration Cards (TRC), which is called the White card to Arakanese
Rohingya in Maungdaw yesterday, according to a local elder from Bawli
Bazaar  (Kyeinchaung).

The program was organized by Burma’s border security force (Nasaka)
outpost number 24 under sector number 4 based in Bawli Bazaar, he added.

The authorities along with the Immigration Department officials and
Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) members are working together
to process the issuing of the White card, said a VPDC member.

The authorities are issuing White cards to Arakanese Rohingya, who are of
age 10 and above but the processing is not systematic. Whenever the
authorities want to issue the card, they start in a place of their
choosing, the member said.

The concerned authorities collected 5000 kyat per head where  photocopies
of family list and TRC card of parents is 500 kyat for VPDC,  Nasaka have
to be paid 1000 kyat and the immigration 3500 kyat, the village VPDC
member said .

The amount to be paid is very high for those struggling for survival. In
this situation, most of Arakanese Rohingya community will not be able to
have the card, said a school teacher from Maungdaw.

“I have two sons and one daughter, who will be able to get the card, but I
can’t pay the money which the authority has demanded, as I have no husband
and only our income is from daily labour of my sons,” said an old woman
from Bawli Bazaar.

In 1982, Burma’s military rulers brought in a new Citizenship Law which
deprived most people of Indian and Chinese descent of citizenship.
However, the timing of its promulgation, shortly after the Arakanese
Rohingya refugee repatriation of 1979, strongly suggests that it was
specifically designed to exclude the Arakanese Rohingya. Unlike the
preceding 1948 Citizenship Act, the 1982 Law is essentially based on the
principle of just sanguine and identifies three categories of citizens:
full, associate and naturalized, according to a report of Chris Lewa from
Arakan Project, “North Arakan: an open prison for the Rohingya in Burma.”

In 1989, colour-coded Citizens Scrutiny Cards (CRCs) were introduced: pink
cards for full citizens, blue for associate citizens and green for
naturalized citizens. The Arakanese Rohingya were not issued any cards. In
1995, the Burmese authorities started issuing them with a Temporary
Registration Card (TRC), a white card, which did not specify nationality,
pursuant to the 1949 Residents of Burma Registration Act. The TRC does not
mention the bearer’s place of birth and cannot be used to claim
citizenship. The family list, which every family residing in Burma
possesses, only records family members and their date of birth. It does
not indicate the place of birth and therefore provides no official
evidence of birth in Burma – and so perpetuates their statelessness, the
report stated.

According to Aung Htoo of the Burma Lawyers’ Council, “everyone can get an
identity card.”  Most of the people registering are being given what are
known as “white cards” for their colour, temporary identity certificates
allowing non-citizens to travel through the country.  The temporary cards
are good for five years and the government has promised that they will be
exchanged for permanent citizenship cards after the 2010 general
elections.

On the other hand, the Shan Herald Agency for News based in Thailand, has
reported thousands of Chinese receiving white cards in Namkham, Muse and
Panghsai townships of Shan State before referendum.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 2, Right Vision News
Dhaka to push Yangon to end border row

Pakistan -- The Bangladesh government will call upon Myanmar to stop
military concentration and manoeuvre in the border belt of the two
neighbouring countries with a view to warding off tension in future.It
will place the appeal at a high-level seven-day director general
(DG)-level meeting between the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and NASAKA, the
border guards of Myanmar, scheduled to begin at Yangon in Myanmar on
December 10, sources said.In the meeting, the DG of BDR Major General
Mainul Islam is expected to request his counterpart to stop trans-border
crimes, push-in of Rohingyas (Myanmar citizens), smuggling of arms and
drugs and other contraband items into Bangladesh from Myanmar through
border points, they added.A high official at the home ministry yesterday
told madia on condition of anonymity that the BDR chief will also prevail
upon the DG of NASAKA for resolving the problems of Bangladeshi fishermen
in the River Naaf and in the Bay and taking necessary steps for confidence
building .Mainul is also likely to ask the Myanmar authorities to take
back the Myanmar nationals, who were arrested by the Bangladesh law
enforcers while intruding into the country and those who have completed
their prison terms in different jails after being charged with various
criminal offences, he informed."Forty-seven Myanmar nationals, whose
prison terms have already been completed, are now waiting to return to
their motherland and they are now in different jails across the country,"
he added.Bangladesh has identified some nine problems concerning border
areas, including Myanmar army's interception in development work inside
Bangladesh and construction of fences within 150 yards of the
international boundary.

These issues will be taken up for discussion at the meeting for peaceful
solution, according to sources.At the talks, the BDR DG will impress upon
the DG of NASAKA that the joint border guidelines should be followed in
letter and spirit for resolving any problem that crops up along the
borders of the two neighbouring countries.Mainul will lead the Bangladesh
delegation at the meeting that comprises sector commander of Chittagong
Colonel Habibur Rahman, director of BDR Colonel Jashim Uddin, staff
officer of BDR headquarters Lt Col Md Nasimul Alam, ADC to DG of BDR
Captain Adnan Kabir, a representative of Home Ministry and a director of
the foreign ministry. Published by HT Syndication with permission from
Right Vision News. For more information on news feed please contact
Sarabjit Jagirdar at htsyndication at hindustantimes.com

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 2, Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
Lankans rescue twelve Myanmar fishermen

Sri Lanka -- Twelve Myanmar fishermen who got into difficulty when their
vessel began to drift after its engine developed a technical defect were
saved by Sri Lankan fishermen and handed over to the Navy.

The fishermen were found in deep sea some 150 nautical miles from the
Eastern shores and transferred into two naval craft and brought ashore,
Navy spokesman Athula Senerath said.

They were provided emergency medical assistance at the Naval Hospital in
Trincomalee.

A senior police officer said the fishermen were not in possession of their
identity cards or other documents and this made it difficult to establish
their identity.

But they were later found to be Myanmar fishermen after their fishing
craft and the articles they carried in their bags were scrutinized.

They are to be sent for a medical check-up and will be produced in Court
before being handed over to the Myanmar Embassy. Published by HT
Syndication with permission from Daily Mirror Sri Lanka. For more
information on news feed please contact Sarabjit Jagirdar at
htsyndication at hindustantimes.com

____________________________________

December 2, Irrawaddy
UN in Malaysia grants more Burmese refugee status – Lawi Weng

About 11,000 Burmese refugees in Malaysia including Chin, Mon, Shan and
Kachin were recognized by the United Nations Higher Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) in 2009, making them eligible for  resettlement in third
countries.

Of the total, Chin numbered about 5,000 people; Mon, 1,800; followed by
Kachin and Shan at about 1,000 and other ethnic groups. Arakan were not
recognized this year.
A young Burmese refugee participates a demonstration outside the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
last year. (Photo: AP)

It was first time the UNHCR recognized such a large number of Burmese
refugees. Burmese refugees experienced difficulties earlier this year when
Thailand launched a crackdown on illegal Burmese migrants attempting to
enter the country from the Malaysia-Thai border, said a member of the
Alliance of Chin Refugees (ACR).

According to ACR, about 50,000 Chin currently live in Malaysia. An
estimated 20,000 Chin have been granted UNHCR refugees status in Malaysia
since 2001.

Nai Roi Mon, an official with the Mon Refugee Office (MRO) in Malaysia,
told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that it processed about 3,000 Mon for
UNHCR refugee status.

According to the MRO, no Mon were granted refugee status in 2007, and only
500 were recognized in 2008.

“They have given favorable recognition to children under age 18,
especially from families with many children, but no husband. They also
favor older men, over 50, as well,” he said.

There are about 20,000 Mon living in Malaysia, many illegally, according
to the MRO.

“If you have an UNHCR card, if you are arrested the UNHCR can  help you
during detention. This is an advantage for people who work here,” he said.

Burmese refugees recognized by the UNHCR may wait for up to one year or
longer for resettlement to third countries.

About 500,000 Burmese migrants work in Malaysia, legally and illegally,
according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Burma Workers’ Rights Protection
Committee.

At the end of October 2009, about 67,800 refugees and asylum-seekers were
registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, according to the UNHCR.

Of those, 62,000 are refugees from Burma, comprising 28,100 Chin, 16,100
Rohingya, 3,700 Burmese Muslims, 2,900 Kachin and other ethnic minorities.

The UNHCR said a large number of Burmese refugees remain unregistered. The
refugee community estimates that unregistered refugees and asylum-seekers
could number 30,000 people.

Burmese refugees living in Thailand continue to relocated to Malaysia to
apply for refugee status. Many pay 18,000 Thai baht (US $500) or more to
enter the country illegally.

The Malaysian government has cooperated with the UNHCR on humanitarian
grounds since 1975 even though Malaysia has not signed the UN Convention
Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Burmese refugees have been sent to third countries including the United
States, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Denmark
and Norway.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 2, Mizzima News
British MPs call for inquiry into junta’s crimes – Mungpi

New Delhi - British Parliamentarians on Tuesday urged the British
government to support its call to the international community,
particularly, the United Nations to set up a commission of inquiry into
the crimes against humanity committed by Burma’s military rulers.

The call was made by members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for
Democracy in Burma (APPG Burma) during a panel discussion at the British
Parliament on ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in Burma.

Sappho Dias, Chair of the London-based Burma Justice Committee (BJC), who
was also a panelist in the discussion said, “It is time for the
international community to act on the crimes committed by the Burmese
generals. And it is also a reminder to the junta that they cannot get away
with what they have done.”

Dias said the Burmese military regime’s crimes including forced
displacement, torture, sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and forced
labour, have been well documented and it is time for the international
community to act, instead of passing resolution after resolution without
action.

Citing a report of the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law
School, titled ‘Crimes in Burma’, at the panel, Dias said, various United
Nations bodies and Special Rapporteurs have all documented evidences of
the Burmese junta’s crimes and it is time for the UN Security Council to
act.

“The Harvard Law School report is a collection of UN documents and various
others studies on the junta’s crimes,” Dias said.

Nang Seng, Campaigns Officer with the Burma Campaign UK, an advocacy group
organising the panel discussion, said it is sad that despite the many
documentations by various UN bodies on the crimes committed by the junta,
UNSC has so far failed to act.

Burma’s military junta, which has ruled the country for the past two
decades, has been internationally condemned for its appalling human rights
violations, particularly in areas dominated by ethnic minorities.

In October, Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), said at least 75,000
people in eastern Burma were forced to leave their homes during the past
one year, making the situation in eastern Burma comparable to that of
Darfur in eastern Sudan.

TBBC, an umbrella group of aid agencies providing humanitarian assistance
to Burmese refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) along the
Thai-Burmese border, said between August 2008 and July 2009, about 120
communities were put into disarray, accounting for a total of  over 3,500
villages and hiding places  in eastern Burma that have been destroyed or
forcibly relocated since 1996.

Sir Geoffrey Nice, one of the panelists and one of the five legal experts
that commissioned the Harvard report, during the panel discussion
explained the that various UN documents and reports by Special Rapporteurs
are sufficient to hold the Burmese junta accountable for their actions.

Despite widespread criticism, Burma’s military junta justifies that it has
not committed any crimes against humanity but has saved the
multi-nationalities country from falling apart as several ethnic rebels
are fighting to secede.

The junta, in its daily mouthpiece newspaper, often accuses ethnic
resistance groups, based along the borders, of instigating public unrest
by setting off explosions in cities across the country, and of torturing
and killing local villagers.

Sappho Dias, a lawyer by profession, said, “Once the commission of inquiry
is established, the junta’s excuses cannot be accepted. Based on the
commission’s findings, they would be held accountable.”

In support of the campaign to the UNSC to set up a commission of inquiry,
members of the APPG-Burma last week tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM),
which was supported by over 40 Members of Parliament, including high
profile MPs across parties, who signed the EDM.

"There is well documented evidence highlighting Burma's use of widespread
torture and forced labour against its civilians," said Alistair
Carmichael, Secretary to the APPG Burma.

"It is imperative that the United Nations establishes a Commission of
Inquiry into these heinous crimes and supports the International Labour
Organisation's calls to refer the use of forced labour to the
International Court of Justice," added Carmichael.

____________________________________

December 2, Irrawaddy
News of Stiglitz visit arouses hopes but also doubts – Ba Kaung

News of the forthcoming visit to Burma by Nobel Economics laureate Joseph
Stiglitz has been greeted with a mixture of hope and doubt  among Burmese
and foreign economists. Many economists say the Burmese military
government should seriously listen to him and initiate immediate economic
reforms.

Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank who was nominated for
the post of Secretary of Finance in US President Obama’s administration
early this year, is to make his first visit to Burma on Dec. 14, reported
the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, citing Noeleen Heyzer, head of
a Bangkok-based United Nations’ regional commission.
Joseph Stiglitz speaks at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Port-of-Spain
on November 24. (Photo: Reuters)

A strong critic of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
policies, Stiglitz is also the founder of the Initiative for Policy
Dialogue, a think tank that helps developing countries. He will meet with
Burma’s Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Maj Gen Htay Oo, and
National Development Minister, Soe Thar, during his visit, which the news
agency said is aimed at improving the country’s rural economy.

The Burmese economy today is worse than at any time since World War II.
The country's rural economy has been extremely hard hit, even before
Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta in May 2008, Sean Turnell,
an Australian expert on the Burmese economy, told The Irrawaddy this week.

“There is almost complete absence of a credit system for farmers to buy
fertilizers and things like that,” Turnell said. “The critical input is
not being purchased, so the agricultural yield is falling. That's a great
problem.”

Over 67 percent of Burma's population in Burma lives in the rural areas
and 32.7 percent exist  below the poverty line, according to the CIA fact
book.

 “Joseph's [Stiglitz's] first important contribution to economics is the
rural credit system, and he has such a great expertise,” Turnell said.
“So, it’s really important for the Burmese military leaders to seriously
listen to him.”

Stiglitz's visit will include field trips to dry zones of Burma and he
will give a lecture at a Naypyidaw forum on “Economic Policies and
Decision Making for Poverty Reduction.”

Some economists doubt that meaningful economic reforms are possible
without any degree of political progress in Burma.

“Economic reforms would be feasible only with political commitment,” said
Khin Maung Nyo, a Burmese economist in Rangoon. “To reduce inflation and
fight against poverty, the whole economic structure must be transformed.”

Despite visits by officials from the World Bank and other international
organizations, things can only  improve if the government has a genuine
will to reform, Khin Maung Nyo said.

Asked if the Burmese military government's invitation to such a renowned
economist as Stiglitz signals a genuine desire to undertake economic
reforms, Turnell said. “There is no indication of that so far. But one can
be hopeful that there might be some people in the government who wish to
conduct a new economic policy.”

Turnell said there are immediate measures the military regime can start
taking by trimming the military budget, increasing expenditure on
education and infrastructure, and changing the official currency exchange
rate system, in which the kyat is valued at more than a hundred times
lower than the unofficial rate.

During one of his meetings with Burmese government leaders in 2007, the UN
Special Envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, was assured that they agreed in
principle to consider establishing a broad-based poverty alleviation
commission. But the military government has not yet made any such step to
improve the dire economic conditions of the country.

Another renowned economist, Jeffery Sachs, visited Burma in 2004, but no
details of that visit were ever released.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 2, Inner City Press (USA)
Darfur post to Gambari confirmed, US's Kurt Campbell and UK's Burma shave
– Matthew Russell Lee

United Nations -- That the UN is giving its top Darfur post to Nigerian
Ibrahim Gambari was an open secret Tuesday night at the UN, although so
far only Inner City Press has reported it, repeatedly, four times in the
last 36 hours. A top UN peacekeeping official told Inner City Press that
Nigeria made a strong play for the post, citing its high number of
peacekeepers in Darfur.

An involved Ambassador told Inner City Press that the cynical explanation
is that the United Kingdom wants someone more strident to be the envoy to
Myanmar, Gambari's current job, and so agreed to move him to Darfur. But
why did the U.S. go along?

Inner City Press approached Gambari himself, for the second time in 12
hours, at Thailand's national day reception on Tuesday night. "No
comment," Gambari began, laughing. He said he had met in Washington with
the State Department's Kurt Campbell. As before, he argued that his
strategy of engagement with the Than Shwe military government in Myanmar
is now being adopted by the U.S. -- why not in Darfur? Scott Gration may
be only the beginning.

An official of the UN's half moribund Office of the Special Advisor on
Africa, a post Gambari used to fill, confirmed that Gambari is going to
Darfur. A person already offered a job in Darfur by Gambari said the
Nigeria's new president likes Gambari. As reported, even UN Peacekeeping
acknowledges that Nigeria used its peacekeeping presence in Darfur to win
the post.

During the reception, Lynn Pascoe he UN's head of Political Affairs,
another job Gambari previously held, exchanged pleasantries with Gambari
and then left. Then Gambari left. "Darfur here I come," someone said,
still wondering why he took the job. But take it he did -- you heard it
here first.

____________________________________

December 2, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Asean breaks bread with rebellious Myanmar – Kamarul Idris

IT is hard to find anything redeeming about the Myanmar junta after
decades of repression and misrule.

The generals of Naypyidaw, which the North Koreans helped build, only have
those peers left in the world whose villainy is measured not just in
prison camps but by their disdain for the mass suffering of innocents - as
was shown when cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta in May last year
and killed far upwards of 100,000 people.

Yet the international climate is thawing for this regime. The United
States is switching from a policy of isolation and opprobrium to one of
direct engagement plus sanctions, and Europe looks likely to follow suit.

In the dilemma of its rogue member, Asean has honed a sophisticated
realpolitik worthy of Kissinger.

Here is what Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the BBC at the
start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting on Nov 13 regarding
Asean's soft approach:

"You can inflict personal indignities on a leader, but is that the way to
change and influence a country's policies?

"They are in it for regime survival and for personal survival. Unless
those concerns can somehow be managed in a transition forward, they are
not going to be persuaded by sweet talk."

Lee and his fellow pragmatists have won the day, with their prize being
President Barack Obama's presence at the first-ever US-Asean summit during
the Apec weekend in Singapore after George W. Bush had declined to do so
in 2007.

No American president had come so close to a Myanmar prime minister in
more than 40 years.

Bush's painting of countries in black and white following the Sept 11,
2001, terrorist attacks had risked tarring the 10-member association with
the same brush as applied to Myanmar. His secretary of state Condoleezza
Rice had made a point of not turning up for two of the four annual Asean
Regional Forums during her time in office.

Apart from wanting a diametrical change from the Bush era, the Obama
administration also saw Chinese pieces advancing on the Southeast Asia
chessboard and moved to reconnect with a region that had mostly been well
disposed to Uncle Sam.

With or without the geopolitics, the US shift is welcomed by Myanmar's
widespread and far-reaching dissident community.

"The new US policy of high-level engagement while maintaining sanctions is
in line with our movement's position," said Khin Ohmar of the Network for
Democracy and Development, based in Mae Sot on the Thai side of the border
with Myanmar.

"But when it comes to implementation, that's where it's still too early to
say."

Except for the civil-society bleeding hearts who treat Aung San Suu Kyi
like a fetish object and the junta like anthrax, the Asean strategy of
"constructive engagement" had always been accepted as the only way to go.

Local pressure groups like the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus do
not dispute the usefulness of breaking bread with the military leaders but
complain about how little has been gained. Western pro-Myanmar
non-governmental organisations have found it easy to accuse Singapore,
Thailand and others of "profiteering" - seeking payback from dealing with
the regime not in Myanmar's democratisation but in profit for their
investors and businesses.

(The Thais can plead for extenuation. They shelter some four million
Myanmar economic migrants and about 150,000 refugees.)

There is concern that the US game plan could provoke a rush to at least
partial normalisation by countries that had previously kept Myanmar at
arm's length.

"The problem is that some countries are interpreting this in their own
way. It's meant to be a carrot-and-stick approach, but they are dropping
the stick and offering only the carrot," Khin said in a telephone
interview.

The carrot is being dangled because of a single, all-encompassing
prospect: the junta has announced that elections will be held next year,
which, if even half-way decent, could herald forgiveness for past sins.

Despite her scepticism, Khin saw it as the only hope. "It's just their own
ploy to legitimise military power. If you look at the constitution, you
will see how military power and privilege will be institutionalised.

"But for us, an election is something that has to happen in Burma. The
last one in 1990 was never honoured."

For those who have tired of inflexibility against such a mulishly
totalitarian state, a Parliament with a portion of seats reserved for the
brass hats may be no bad thing. It has happened before in the rites of
passage to democracy of nations like Thailand and Indonesia.

Khin said: "For the election to be credible and for it to resolve the
crisis in the country, there are key benchmarks which must be met.

"That includes the release of Suu Kyi and political prisoners, stopping
hostilities against ethnic minorities, creating the right atmosphere for
every stakeholder to participate in the political process."

A test of the junta's pluralist stripes will be how it responds to Suu
Kyi's plaintive request to Senior Gen Than Shwe to be allowed to meet her
party colleagues in the National League for Democracy, and to act as
go-between in talks to lift sanctions.

"No, we haven't heard anything yet," Khin said. "This can be an indicator
of a genuine openness by the regime. They can start by accommodating that
little thing. But right now, there is no response."

US officials have stressed the conditional aspects of their new stance.
Whether or not the corner has been turned on Myanmar, its emigres have the
patience of saints praying for lost causes.

Khin, then a protest organiser, fled the country during the crackdown
following student demonstrations in 1988.

She does relief work for the sizable population of displaced Myanmar in
the border areas.

Fearful of reprisal, she is rarely in touch with friends and family in
Myanmar. Khin no longer misses home; she does not expect to return in the
foreseeable future.